Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

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Preface
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has a 
far-reaching impact on our social and economic 
lives. Forecasts of future economic development 
are fraught with uncertainty at present and will de-
pend on how long the crisis lasts, what restrictions 
are imposed and how effective the measures taken 
prove to be. Due to the situation, therefore, no 
GDP forecast has been produced for 2020 – mere-
ly a scenario calculation for future economic devel-
opment. This also means that there is no global 
estimate of research intensity from Statistics 
Austria for 2020 and thus no illustration of annual 
estimated R&D expenditure or R&D intensity for 
the current year in this Austrian Research and 
Technology Report. If the pandemic has shown us 
anything, it is just how important basic, applica-
tion-oriented research is in overcoming a crisis. In 
2020, the federal government provided short-term 
funding for research into combating COVID-19 and 
made an extra €28 million available on short notice 
for studies into the effectiveness of existing drugs. 
As an accompanying measure, the medical univer-
sities are being supported with €2 million to enable 
them to take part in clinical trials together with 
companies.
However, the pandemic is also making it clear that 
the federal government has chosen the right path 
with the planned Research Funding Act and how 
important this path actually is. This law will induce 
fundamental changes to the framework conditions. 
As well as providing planning and funding security 
for three years, it is also designed to increase flex-
ibility in day-to-day activities to allow a faster and 
more effective response to relevant challenges. To 
enable a complete and systemic view of govern-
ment-funded research and its performance in the 
future, annual monitoring of the ten central 
research and research funding institutions listed in 
detail in the legislation is also envisaged as part 
of the Austrian Research and Technology Report. 
For the first time, the present report attempts to 
facilitate this view of the system as a whole using 
standardised key indicators and a reporting struc-
ture that also tries to take account of the various 
differences between these ten stakeholders. This 
significantly enhances and expands the Austrian 
Research and Technology Report. 
At national level, work is under way to prepare a 
new RTI strategy valid until 2030, which will give us 
a framework for the research agendas of the next 
few years. It is focusing on output as well as im-
pact, excellence and openness. These broad objec-
tives are being reinforced by analyses of Austria’s 
strengths and weaknesses in international rank-
ings, which put the country in a good upper mid-
field position in a global comparison – but not right 
at the top. At international level, and with Horizon 
2020 drawing to a close, the negotiations over 
Horizon Europe – the EU’s new Framework Pro-
gramme for Research and Innovation for 2021–2027 
– are playing a major role. This Austrian Research 
and Technology Report thus looks back over the 
long and successful history of Austrian involve-
ment in the EU Framework Programme for Research 
and forward to current developments in the pro-
gramme’s new incarnation.
The focus topic for this year’s report is artificial in-
telligence (AI). The rapid progress of global techno-
logical development and the use of AI in all manner 
of different areas will bring radical, disruptive 
change to our society. AI is also given broad cover-
age in the current government programme for 
2020–2024, and developing an AI strategy is a 
stated objective. This is reason enough to explore 
the topic in greater depth and provide an extensive 
overview of its definitions, potential uses, ethics 
guidelines and legal situation. 

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